What is Measure Word
A group of birds, a herd of cows. Similar to English, Chinese also uses measure words. However, Chinese uses them much more frequently than English. In English, you can say “There is a flock of birds” or “There are five birds.” In Chinese, we always need to use the specific measure word, no matter how many there are.
Measure words are a major challenge for many Chinese language learners. There are over two hundred different measure words in Chinese. Many nouns are linked with their own special measure word, which usually relates to the meaning of the given noun.
In Chinese, you always need to put a measure word between a number and a noun, or a demonstrative pronoun and a noun. Every noun, even single and countable nouns, requires a measure word in Chinese.
一杯水 yì bēi shuǐ a cup of water
五只狗 wǔ zhī gǒu five dogs
这本书 zhè běn shū this book
那辆车 nà liàng chē that car
However, measure words are not required when the noun is used generically to refer to something without regard to a specific quantity.
书很好 shū hěnhǎo book(s) is/are good
我有笔 wǒ yǒu bǐ I have pen(s)
個/个 (ge)
This is the single most common measure word in Chinese. It is also sometimes used as a substitute for other measure words. While it’s not technically incorrect, using it as a substitute for other measure words may make you sound like a child.
一个汉堡包 Yí ge hànbǎobāo
A hamburger.
两个碗
Liǎng ge wǎn
Two bowls.
張/张 (zhāng)
张 is an measure word for flat objects like a ticket, a piece of paper, a table, or a bed, and so on.
一张纸 Yì zhāng zhǐ
A piece of paper
兩张桌子 Liǎng zhāng zhuōzi
Two tables
三张票 Sān zhāng piào
Three tickets
